Sunday, May 8, 2011

Do's and Don'ts of Blog Advertisements

This is a rather straight forward list, geared mostly towards how you display ads on your blog. Too many times I see blogs where the ads are utterly annoying, and it just drives me insane. Would the authors go to a website with the same kinds of ads? Probably not, so why they implement these is beyond me.

DON'T

Use ads that play audio. I used to frequent a blog for months that reviewed manga. Then, along comes those cleaning product ads. You know, the ones that are "interactive?" While they're annoying in their own way, they automatically played audio. I don't know about you, but reading quietly and then suddenly hearing "OH NO ANOTHER STAIN" is quite off-putting.

Use ads that increase your website's loading time. This means some of the Flash heavy image ads have to go.

Place text ads anywhere they might get accidentally clicked. Not only will the ad system you use get you on that, but it's also not reader-friendly.

Use ads that are placed inside your blog post's text.It is terribly annoying to scroll through the blog and suddenly come to a stop because an ad pops up.

Ask for support by visiting a "sponsor." This should be common sense, but before they had that rule put in certain companies' TOS, I used to see it all the time. Simply put, don't do this.

Use text ads with annoying colors. If everything in your blog is tones of blue, don't use orange ads. It's just aesthetically unpleasing.

Write paid blog reviews. That is a quick way to lose your credibility!

DO

Try to weed through advertisers and remove the ones that are obviously scams. You have to care about where your readers might go if they do click on an ad (beyond that, those scam sites typically pay lower than other advertisers, if you could care less about your readers).

Use text ads as often as you can! It's much easier to make sure these ads blend in, plus they aren't as distracting as image ads. Plus, it minimizes your page's loading time.

Use different keywords to improve the advertisers you get! That way you don't have to resort to getting a bunch of different types of ads cluttering up your blog.

Use reputable ad services! This not only ensures the highest quality for your ads, but also makes sure they're not misleading to your readers. Adsense for pay per click and Project Wonderful for time spent on your website is the way to go! Even lesser popular but still well known Adbrite and Bidvertiser have fishy kinds of ads.

Follow these rules, and you should be good to go. Another note about keyword use: using Google Adwords' keyword tool to find keywords similar to subjects you're writing about is a good way to go. The more searches and competition a keyword has, the more effective that keyword is. You can also try Googling the highest paying keywords, although they are geared to things more like tax attorneys, lemon law, and other high paying yet limited use keywords.

Bottom line is, don't expect instant gratification with any of this stuff! Blogging for money will by no means make you rich, and flooding your blog with ads will hurt your growth, not help it. But if you do your research and invest a lot of time in it, pretty soon you can pay a few bills here and there with your hobby!